5 X-Men Mutants with the Perfect Powers for Beating Casino Games

When the Incredible Hulk began rampaging through Las Vegas, Nevada in X-MEN(Vol 1, #66) – published in March of 1970 – the titular team of superheroes sent Cyclops, Marvel Girl, Angel and Beast to bring Dr. Bruce Banner’s angry alter ego back from the brink.

Like usual, those early era X-Men made it to Sin City in time to save the day, returning to their mansion school headquarters with one of Banner’s gamma-ray devices to revive a languishing Professor Xavier.

But what if they wound up staying the night instead? Imagine the X-Men lighting out for a night on the town, and taking their various powers for a spin in the gambling capital of the world.

Obviously, mutants with superhuman powers would possess an inherent advantage over the house, and our favorite heroes would never cheat to win. Even so, it’s still pretty fun to imagine how various mutants from the X-Men universe would apply their particular powers to become unbeatable at their favorite games.

He’s not a true member of the team, but Magneto has formed several alliances of necessity with his old friend Xavier over the years, serving as a de facto X-Man when mutant-kind is truly put in peril.

So if he decided to tag along for the Vegas adventure, naturally Magneto’s first stop would be the roulette table.

In the 2003 film X-MEN 2, an imprisoned Magneto removes the iron from a man’s blood to form small metal balls, which he then uses to break the bonds of his glass cell. Those balls bore an uncanny resemblance to those used on a roulette wheel, and considering how adept Magneto was at wielding them in the movie, there’s no doubt he’d apply the same metal-moving ability to land a few “lucky” numbers.

Professor X – Poker

Unless he’s been compelled to use the Cerebro machine, Professor Charles Xavier goes to great lengths to avoid turning his immense telepathic powers into an invasion of privacy.

At the poker table, though, the prime objective is to pry out every piece of hidden information about an opponent’s hand. So if he was able to ignore his moral compass for a few moments, Professor X would easily become the best poker player on the planet.

In the real world, elite professional poker players like six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu already display an uncanny knack for “reading” others during a hand. By carefully observing the subtle minutiae of speech patterns, facial expressions, eye movements, and prior behavior, Negreanu’s signature move is calling out an opponent’s hand, usually down to the exact two cards.

For those on the wrong end of a poker “soul read,” the phenomenon can feel quite like having somebody read your mind. In the case of Professor X, his poker skill set would resemble that of Negreanu, with both calling down bluffs with ease, making the correct laydown, and always seeming to stay one step ahead of the competition.

Jean Grey – Craps

Known as Marvel Girl back in 1970 when that fateful showdown with the Hulk took place in the Nevada desert, Jean Grey possesses the same level of telepathic power as Professor X, and she can move any object, metal or otherwise, through telekinesis.

As a gambler, her abilities would be similarly unrivaled, as Jean Grey’s unique blend of mind-control over both people and objects would make her essentially unbeatable. But we’d like to think she’d stick to craps, taking the term “dice controller” to an entirely different level.

With one flick of her wrist and well-timed glance at the dice, Jean Grey could roll as many Hard 8s as her heart desires, or simply keep the roll going as long as she likes while racking up wins. In fact, with her talent for controlling how the dice tumble, Jean Grey would give world-record holder Patricia Demauro – who rolled 154 times continuously over more than 4 hours without throwing a seven in 2009 – a run for her money.

Gambit – Blackjack

Since his introduction to the X-Men universe in 1990, the Cajun card-thrower Gambit has seldom been seen without a deck of playing cards in hand.

Time spent on the streets of New Orleans as a boy turned Remy Lebeau into a proficient “mechanic” when handling cards, and his abilities resemble a magician more than a mutant in that regard. Gambit’s primary superpower of charging objects with kinetic energy wouldn’t be all that useful on the casino floor, but his enhanced dexterity when handling cards is a great asset at the blackjack table.

All over the world advantage play blackjack specialists – including Ben Affleck of Batman fame and Daredevil infamy – attempt to count their way through the deck, tracking previous discards in order to better predict what will come on the subsequent draws.

For Gambit, who always seems to have his cards handy, the fast-paced play is simply second nature for his finely tuned bio-kinetic enhance reflexes, so he’d have no trouble keeping a running count even with a multiple deck shoe.

Quicksilver – Video Poker

In a game like video poker, it’s all about pressing the smallest of edges gained by using proper strategy over and over again.

That’s why you’ll often see video poker players in a whirling dervish of activity, pressing buttons in a frenzy as their fingers flash over the screen. At that rate, they can play dozens more hands per hour than the average player, thus offering a higher likelihood of eventually triggering a jackpot hand like a four aces or a royal flush.

So for a speedy mutant like Quicksilver, who can practically stop time while moving at hypersonic speeds, the video poker machines present a smorgasbord of easy winnings. Imagine one of his now classic montage scenes from X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST and X-MEN: APOCALYPSEtaking place within the surreal setting of a casino floor.

Quicksilver could deposit funds in 20 machines before the first was ready to go, deal out hands from each machine, and run through hold / draw decisions in a literal blink of an eye. And while other players patiently hope to hit, he’d just flash back and forth from various games until the premium hands finally pay out.